music education

My undergraduate degree is in Music Education. When I was student teaching my discipline for the class was setup on a rewards system (I was k5-5th grade). The class had "m-u-s-i-c" written on the board and would lose a letter if I needed to discipline for a particular reason. The reward was a star at the end of class and 1 point for each letter that remained on the board, with a bonus 5 points if no letters were removed. Basically it served as a competition. I told them that the class from each age group with the most points at the end of the month would get a special prize.

Wired is running an interesting review for The Heart is a Drum Machine. I have to admit I hadn't heard of this movie before, but now I am going to have to check it out. From the review it sounds like it is 1 part science for every part of artistry. Which should work out perfectly for me. I've already added it to my netflix queue and can't wait for it to get here.

During my Undergraduate degree music ed majors were required each semester to take an instrument class. At first I thought the idea was great. I would choose an instrument that I had no previous experience with and learn the basics in that instrument, maybe pick up a new instrument along the way. In reality I didn't like the classes at all for a few reasons. First my school had the grand idea that you learn theses instruments with the intent to be "prepared" to teach these instruments to beginning students.

I remember in college fighting over different practice rooms in the fine arts building. This was never a perfect system, in fact, it was downright aweful. Some people would park themselves in a practice room for hours at a time. At other times you would have to fight with brass groups or just that annoying trumpeter practicing the same high note for 2 hours straight. Of course there were coveted rooms. Not necessarily because there was anything all that special, but it varied for the reasons.